What Pfizer, Trump, and consumers got out of a surprising deal — and what they didn’t
JULY 11, 2018
(ALEX HOGAN/STAT; PHOTOS: SAUL LOEB/AFP/GETTY IMAGES AND CARL COURT/AFP/GETTY IMAGES)
At some point on Tuesday, President Trump got on the phone with Pfizer CEO Ian Read and hung up with an assurance that Pfizer would defer raising the prices on more than 40 drugs.
But what happened in the meantime?
That’s what Sen. Ron Wyden wants to know. He’s concerned Pfizer got some sort of “sweetheart” deal with the administration, and he has questions about how the agreement, which would delay planned price increases until the end of the year, managed to avoid interfering with Pfizer’s Medicare contracts.
And what does all this actually mean for consumers? Probably little if anything, experts told STAT. The system by which drugs get paid for is so complicated that Pfizer’s move is unlikely to have any noticeable effect on patient’s bottom lines, they said.
“Nobody in the American public is going to notice this in terms of the amount that they pay for their drugs,” said Gerard Anderson, a professor of health policy and management at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School Public Health.
Read more.
But what happened in the meantime?
That’s what Sen. Ron Wyden wants to know. He’s concerned Pfizer got some sort of “sweetheart” deal with the administration, and he has questions about how the agreement, which would delay planned price increases until the end of the year, managed to avoid interfering with Pfizer’s Medicare contracts.
And what does all this actually mean for consumers? Probably little if anything, experts told STAT. The system by which drugs get paid for is so complicated that Pfizer’s move is unlikely to have any noticeable effect on patient’s bottom lines, they said.
“Nobody in the American public is going to notice this in terms of the amount that they pay for their drugs,” said Gerard Anderson, a professor of health policy and management at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School Public Health.
Read more.
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